A question about EMG pickups and red input lights....

kgk

Member
I have a guitar with EMG pickups (81, 85), and my wireless drops it down by -10dB.

Then, the analog input on my Axe FX (a XL) is set to 10%, so that's another -10dB.

So, I think that I have a total attenuation of -20dB, and if I put on both pickups and hit a loud chord, I can still get red dots on the Axe FX's input level... is this normal?

-20dB seems like a lot of attenuation, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong....
 
Not a complete answer but for my EMG guitar and my dimarzio JPs, my input is waaaaay down in I/O, thought it's noise ratio and not really input. I remember Chris having it set very low too for his majesty.
 
Doesn't really surprise me, active pickups have a builtin preamp after all. I don't use active's myself, but wouldn't be shocked to see the input end up under 20% if you do, those m-f'ers are h-o-t.

That being said, no harm in occasional red dot tickling though. I have a guitar with a set of single coils and one with some lace alumitones that's 100% w/ no red lights, my humbucker equipped guitar might wanna be about 70% for no red lights ever, but I split the difference and keep it at about 80% which will tickle the reds when i'm playing really hard with the humbuckers wide open, but I tend to roll back my volume for a lot of playing anyways.
 
45% for PRS 57/08 HB PUps. Still might bring it down some more ...

I'd imagine "active" PUps would require much less.
 
I use high output pickups as well, Bareknuckle CBombs/Coldsweat and juggernauts and the bridge height is about 2mm when fretting last fret.
My input is 24% if I remember correctly (ticking red)
 
After reading this I may try turning down my input level from 50%.
I use a variety of guitars with passive and active pickups.
 
I've got a Fender Strato Classic Floydrose with EMG 81.

My Input is set to 51% (Red dot only when playing really hard)
 
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Hey guys, one of my guitars I use has the same combo, the EMG 81/85s. Where exactly are you guys going to turn down the input level? I feel like I'm a total newb for asking that. I got lucky enough that my main passive guitars sound beautiful with almost no tweaking so I've never really had to mess with the input level at all.
 
It's here:


Thanks to Chris


Ok, cool. I'll have to mess with that control on my EMG guitar. So from what I understand, I should set that level for my loudest guitar (the EMGs) and it shouldn't mess with the sound of my patches for my passive guitars? Or is there a way to control that from within a preset?
 
My Music Man Luke's (with EMGs) are WAY LOWER output than the Dimarzio Transitions in my LIII. I've played other guitars with passive pickups that were way more powerful than EMGs, so knowing this, I wouldn't treat the EMG equipped guitars any differently as far as the Axe input level is concerned. I just set the level on my Axe-Fx using the loudest guitar, so in my case, the LIII.
 

Tyvm sir. The few times I have used that EMG guitar, I have noticed that it would feedback almost immediately after taking my hand off the strings. The only way to stop that was to drop the volume knob down a smidge. After watching that video, sounds like the input being too hot is the culprit. Can't wait to get home now and check that setting.
 
My Music Man Luke's (with EMGs) are WAY LOWER output than the Dimarzio Transitions in my LIII. I've played other guitars with passive pickups that were way more powerful than EMGs, so knowing this, I wouldn't treat the EMG equipped guitars any differently as far as the Axe input level is concerned. I just set the level on my Axe-Fx using the loudest guitar, so in my case, the LIII.

My experience as well....my Lukes are VERY low. I have a hard time getting them to hit the red even with the input levels maxed...

RR
 
My guitars sound awful when Input 1 is set to anything above 10% on high gain amps, just turns to mush, its very sensitive, i'm using high output passive humbuckers.
 
Would be cool if it was possible to have more than one setting saved for input level. Even two would be a lot better, since most of us have standard and EMG style pickups which react way diff to the input than each other.
 
Would be cool if it was possible to have more than one setting saved for input level. Even two would be a lot better, since most of us have standard and EMG style pickups which react way diff to the input than each other.

That would be really cool, if dropping the input level effects patches made for passive pickups too much.

When I checked mine out, I found my input set at 50%. At low bedroom volumes, everything sounds fine. It's when I crank up to gig volume that my EMGs start squealing like a stuck pig :). I dropped the input volume down to 40% and I did notice a little change in my EMGs at lower volumes. I'm going to try and crank it up tonight and see if that fixed my issue without impacting my passives too much.
 
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